I have not written for quite some time, so it is rather overwhelming to even try and capture all that God has done so far this year. Wow. God is Good! We started the quarter off right before school even started with a bbq at our house. Luckily we were having the bbq in the park right behind our house because about 100 students came!! It was a lot of fun and an exciting way to start off the quarter. Shortly thereafter, we had large group meetings for Cardinal Life the first and second weeks of school. Both of those meetings were the largest groups we have ever had come to Cardinal Life (well over 100 students), which was obviously encouraging and exciting. We try not to measure our Kingdom "success" by how many people are coming to meetings, but it was encouraging nonetheless to see that many students show up to a meeting where they would get to hear the gospel and a message about Jesus. In reality, we would rather the group be small and on fire for Jesus than large and lukewarm or not even believing at all. Ideally we would have both:)
I (Natalie) have been meeting with about 23 girls per week all year. That continues to be my favorite part of ministry and where I am energized and come alive the most. I love to go deeper with girls on an individual basis and dig into the Word together, hear what God is teaching them and doing in their lives, love and counsel them however I can, and just walk alongside them. It is such a joy and delight to my heart to see women who either already love Jesus and are committed to following him no matter what the cost or who desire to grow and pursue an intimate relationship with Him, even for the first time. I was able to share the gospel with a few girls for the first time and see them put their faith in Jesus!!! That always makes me cry and rejoice more than anything else. It is truly a miracle to see women come to faith for the first time in college and just be immediately filled with faith and passion for Him. One girl in particular who recently believed and received Jesus three weeks ago (after only two hours of talking) has just been on fire for Him and so hungry for the word. She has already asked me if she could pray for me and has demonstrated a surrender and repentance that is such an amazing demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit! Seeing people receive the Good News of Jesus in faith and getting to participate in that is enough to keep us going for awhile!!
Another cool thing this year is that we started something called Cross Training, which is basically church at our house every Monday night for any students who want to come. Our little house has been packed pretty much every Monday night, and we have gotten to see the Lord work mightily in that space. Our time together starts at 6 with dinner (I have perfected the art of cooking meals for about 30 people), and then at 7, we usually start by either reading a passage of Scripture or watching a sermon (usually Francis Chan from a church in Simi Valley...He is amazing!!) and then discussing it. Then we have a time of worship led by Cody (Trent's brother who is a sophomore at Stanford), followed by a time of prayer for one another. Very simple, but it has been so powerful. It has been really neat to watch a true community begin to emerge where people genuinely love one another, feel at home, and have a lot of fun together. We have gotten to see the Lord work mightily in answering many of our prayers for one another and other people. It has also been amazing to see people more set free to unashamedly worship God and express love for each other. Sometimes it seems like Stanford students (and people in general) have a lot of fear and shame surrounding expressing love for one another or freely worshiping God in song or in other parts of life. It has been neat to see students come to a place where they are able to worship God freely. Our prayer times have become increasingly awesome and we usually either lay our hands on someone or just put our arms around each others shoulders to embrace one another as we pray. That has been sweet and very life giving to us and all of the students! We have enoyed having our home turned into a temple of worship, community, and a little glimpse of what the Kingdom of God is like!
God has also been tremendously growing Trent and I individually and as a couple. I find that the verse in Philemon 1:6 is very true, "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." As Trent and I share our faith and lead other students along, it strengthens our faith and constantly convicts us. I desire for every girl I meet with to genuinely and completely trust in the person of Jesus Christ. To trust that his commands are for our best, that he is the greatest treasure that we could ever have, that in losing our lives for his sake we find it, and that all of his promises are true! So this challenges me to believe it myself through the power of the Holy Spirit. We share in Paul's sentiment that "we beat our bodies and make them our slaves so that after we have preached to others, we ourselves will not be disqualified for the prize," (1Corinthians 9:27).
And finally, we pray that "the Lord will make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones," (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13). We love and miss you all and hope everyone is doing well!!
